Touchstones: Rugby League, Rock'n'Roll, The Road and Me

Certainly, there is an integrity to Mr Mascord.’ - RUSSELL CROWE
Steve Mascord spent all his money on twin obsessions: rugby league and rock’n’roll.
Aged 47, Steve owned precisely nothing aside from hundreds of records and CDs, and almost every edition of Rugby League Week, all piled in a small storage room. His credit cards were maxed out. Steve knew he was adopted, but had never met his birth family and wasn’t aware his mother had searched for him until her dying day. Finally, he was introduced to cousins, uncles and aunties he’d never known, and for the first time felt loved and whole. And he looked around that storage room and felt a profound sense of loss.
He appeared in newspapers and on radio and television. People thought he was successful. But had he created a real life for himself, or had he been living in denial, a childhood fantasy, compensating for what had been missing?
Steve thinks: Enough of being Steve Mascord. Time to be Andrew John Langley (his birth name).
He decides to conduct an audit. What to keep in his new life? What to leave behind?
To this end, he sets himself the task of going to a game and a gig every week for 52 weeks, with Andrew to decide if Steve’s obsessions are worthy or worthless. Even the most basic aspects of Steve’s life are up for review as he and Andrew crisscross the globe. On their travels, they assess the relevance of league and hard rock, the foibles of modern journalism and the nature of fame. Does growing up require us to abandon our dreams?
This journey is Touchstones.